The University of Montana women’s tennis team dropped its semifinal match of the Big Sky Championship 4-2 to Northern Arizona Saturday. The close match pivoted upon a third-set tiebreaker that the Lumberjacks took for the clinching point at No. 6 singles.
The Grizzlies improved upon the 6-1 loss to the Lumberjacks in the two teams’ March 5 meeting in which the only UM win came with Heather Davidson at No. 3. In Saturday’s match-up, Montana found additional wins from Constance Alexander at No 2. and close, unfinished matches with Alexander and Moyse at No. 3 doubles, and Amanda Bran at No.4 singles, in which the UM junior was within two points of a three-set victory.
Northern Arizona took the clincher at No. 6 when Nicole Perez outscored Cara Lehman 7-1 in a third-set tiebreaker. Lehman had taken the first set 6-4 over Perez, then dropped the second 3-6 before Lehman pushed the Lumberjack to the set three tiebreaker.
The match would take close to four hours to conclude.
Alexander took her win over January 27 Big Sky Player of the Week Orsi Golovics at No. 2. The UM freshman defeated Golovics 6-3, 6-4 for the first Montana point.
Heather Davidson, also a Grizzly freshman, defeated Aimee Oki 6-3, 6-3. Davidson’s victory was her second of the season over Oki, who was the only Big Sky player to top Sacramento State No.2 Rebeca Delgado at the No. 2 position in 2010.
Junior Amanda Bran was in the final moments of her three-set match with Malia Wahinepio when Northern Arizona took the clinching point, which stopped the No. 4 match.
Afterward, Bran said, “It was such an exciting match. We all went out and played better than any of us had all season. It was very close. Cara (Lehman) had great match and fought hard to the last moment and I was within two points of the win when we had to stop playing that’s about as close as it gets.
“For the team have such a tight match across the board was pretty exciting. I think that I got up for the pressure, which is typically when I can perform at my best.
“There was a huge difference between the team this year and last. We worked well as a group, lending strength to our teammates, helping each other in practice and getting one-another pumped up for our matches. The new freshmen played tough for us and as and the entire returning group stepped it up. It’s no surprise that we did so well.”
Northern Arizona will go on to face first-seed Sacramento State, which defeated Montana State 4-0 in the schools’ Saturday semifinal. The championship match will take place Sunday.
By the numbers, Montana went 10-12 overall, improving upon its 2009 mark of 8-13. The Grizzlies improved in conference play, winning two more regular season matches than 2009. In those matches, Montana took 27 singles points to the 20 won in ’09. For doubles, the 2010 Grizzlies improved from 13-11 to 17-7 in the 2010 Big Sky.
In 2009, the only two Grizzlies near or above .500 were Rebecca Bran at 11-9 and graduated player Liz Walker at 13 and 7. In 2010, Montana saw Alexander finish at 12-9, Davidson finish at 12-10 and Amanda Bran finish at 10-11, within striking distance of evening-out Saturday.
Following Saturday’s Big Sky semifinal, second year UM coach Steve Ascher said, “I agree that the girls put forth their best effort and had their most well played match of the season. In order to have that occur in the final match of the year really shows the personal development they made through the season. That development is undeniably the product of a hard-working group of athletes.
“The match today was the type of performance that helps to define our identity as a team. This is why we compete, and it will be reflected in our opponent’s expectation in the future.
“There were great elements that contributed to our improvement over a month ago at NAU. Constance defeated a player that she had not beaten before, Heather established herself again over a top player, Amanda was able to fight back in a close second set and be near to another UM point, and Cara pushes her opponent to the absolute threshold in another three-set match.
“When you consider the loss today, one needs to keep emotion in perspective. The closer a competition, the more it might hurt to lose. Those emotions are dictated by how close you were. It might have been more disappointing to lose if we had come in favored to win today. The fact is, NAU beat us 6-1 last time. With that consideration, I will choose to hurt every time, especially against tough opponents like NAU.
“We might now be considered the most improved team in the conference. I don’t believe that we have ever had a UM team in the top two at the championship, and now we are knocking on that door.”
Tennis Match Results
Montana vs Northern Arizona
Apr 24, 2010 at Gold River, Calif.
Northern Arizona 4, Montana 2
Singles competition:
1. SUHAJDA, Edit (NAU) def. BRAN, Rebecca (UM) 7-5, 6-1
2. ALEXANDER, Constance (UM) def. GOLOVICS, Orsi (NAU) 6-3, 6-4
3. DAVIDSON, Heather (UM) def. OKI, Aimee (NAU) 6-3, 6-3
4. WAHINEPIO, Malia (NAU) vs. BRAN, Amanda (UM) 6-3, 6-7 (3-7), 5-6, unfinished
5. HASEGAWA, Yumi (NAU) def. GIBSON, Lauren (UM) 6-2, 6-3
6. PEREZ, Nicole (NAU) def. LEHMAN, Cara (UM) 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1)
Doubles competition:
1. GOLOVICS, Orsi/WAHINEPIO, Malia (NAU) def. BRAN, Rebecca/DAVIDSON, Heather (UM) 8-3
2. PEREZ, Nicole/OKI, Aimee (NAU) def. GIBSON, Lauren/BRAN, Amanda (UM) 8-3
3. SUHAJDA, Edit/HASEGAWA, Yumi (NAU) vs. ALEXANDER, Constance/MOYSE, Kayla (UM) 7-5, unfinished
Match Notes:
Montana 10-12
Northern Arizona 13-6
Order of finish: Doubles (1,2); Singles (1,5,2,3,6)
Big Sky Conference Tournament Semifinals